CAMERA Letter in Washington Times Educates on CAIR

Naiem Sherbiny, Saad Ibrahim and Charles Butterworth of the Ibn Khaldun Center claim that the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is not “in any way guilty of disloyal actions toward the United States” (“‘Hatred’ against Muslims,” Letters, Saturday).

CAIR was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the recent federal trial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development for supporting terrorism. The trial ended in a hung jury. The government says it will retry the case.

In 2004, CAIR sued the Web site www.anticair.com for libel. The site had claimed that the council was founded by Islamic terrorists, started by Hamas members, funded by Hamas supporters, functioned as a terrorist-supporting front group and sought to overthrow the U.S. government.

In 2005, CAIR amended its original motion, reducing the libel claims from five to two. It dropped those based on the Web site’s claims that CAIR was founded by Islamic terrorists, started by Hamas members and funded by Hamas supporters.

Hamas is the Islamic Resistance Movement, a Palestinian Arab group responsible for scores of terrorist attacks that have murdered hundreds of Israelis, mostly noncombatants. The U.S. government has designated Hamas as a terrorist organization.

CAIR and www.anticair.com reached a confidential, mutually agreed settlement on the two remaining libel claims, that the council is a terrorist-supporting front organization and that it seeks to overthrow the U.S. government. CAIR may have settled to avoid further disclosure.

The letter writers stated that CAIR is not legally “in any way guilty of disloyal actions toward the United States.” However, CAIR isn’t the American-Islamic equivalent of the NAACP or the Anti-Defamation League.

ERIC ROZENMANWashington directorCommittee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in AmericaWashington